Eugenia Bone is an internationally known food and nature writer whose work has appeared in many anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. She is a member of the faculty at the New York Botanical Garden where she teaches classes on mycophagy and psychedelic mushrooms. She is the author or co-author of nine books on food and biology, including the category staple *Mycophilia*, and most recently, *Have a Good Trip: Exploring the Magic Mushroom Experience* (October, 2024). She has been nominated for or won a variety of awards, including a James Beard Award. Eugenia is featured in the documentary directed by Louie Schwartzberg, *Fantastic Fungi* (2019), and in the Netflix children’s show about food, *Waffles + Mochi* (the mushroom episode) produced by Michele Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.

Hila is pronounced Hee-lah or Hill-ah, my name is Hebrew for “light around the moon.” My origin story begins in SoHo, NYC, where I grew up without a single tree on my block. We didn’t have a house upstate, we barely had houseplants! It was a slow organic journey to becoming the Earth. I had to teach myself everything. I am on a mission to be your pop planet, we’re writing Earth songs, performing at farmers’ markets, and making bright colorful videos that inform, entertain and empower the people of the Earth to be more connected and healthy on this life-giving spinning spaceship. I advocate for compost, trees, thriving ecosystems, regenerative agriculture, mushroom cultivation, clean water, indigenous rights, conservation, reusables, limiting single-use plastics, and clean energy! We are educating about solutions and how to foster a better future here on Earth.

Jessica Reisch (she/her) is a new media artist, designer, and educator. Her interdisciplinary practice draws on networked connections between art, technology, and the environment.

Performer: Venus Jorgia is an interdisciplinary performance artist, blending body endurance with compelling storytelling.

At the Genspace Biomaterials Studio, we research and develop unconventional ways of taking biological materials or materials found naturally on our planet and turning them into eco-friendly alternatives to everyday items.

Instructor Bio: Noah Firth (he/him) is a Brooklyn-based educator and self-taught mycologist. His work is driven by the belief that mushroom cultivation is not just accessible, but empowering. His process is rooted in an open-source ethos, where adaptability meets mindfulness and prioritizes creating opportunities for everyone to explore the transformative power of fungi on their own terms. His technique embraces a DIY approach in every step. He hopes to introduce students to the personal agency that comes from growing your own food and medicine.

Luke Sarrantonio (He/Him) grew up in Rosendale, New York and spent much of his childhood exploring the surrounding landscape. It wasn’t until attending university at SUNY ESF (college of Environmental Science and Forestry) that he truly discovered Fungi. After graduating in 2011, discouraged by the lack of non-academic learning resources around Fungi and Ecology; he made it a mission to develop educational programming and community projects, while also consulting and making functional products.

Mike Indursky(He/him) After spending the last 30 years in the beauty and wellness business, Mike Indursky founded HEAR ME RAW. It’s skincare that’s Powerful, Plant-Based, Simple and Sustainable.

Niv (She/they) is, above all, a dedicated student and teacher of yoga. For two years, she led Liberation Flow, a donation-based POC yoga collective in Seattle, with the mission of reclaiming the spiritual roots of yoga. Psychedelics have been an important part of her own spiritual practice and she hopes to share her love of psychedelics, yoga, meditation, and spirituality!

Matt Kiser (He/him) is a citizen scientist mycophile based in Southwest Philadelphia. His mycological endeavors spanning a decade have connected him to many people and places, as well as redirecting his growth path. The bulk of his myco-experience lay in aseptic lab work, cultivating numerous species of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms, and making concentrated extractions of them. Selling mostly wholesale product under the name CellarDoor Fungus, he crafts his extractions with care from spore to tincture. He brings experience from utilizing low tech methods to the higher tech. Having attended countless classes, workshops, and mycology convergences, he maintains that education and accessibility are the most important factors of how mycology can make the world a better place. Recently having bought land in coastal Maine, his long-game plans are to establish his off-grid mushroom farmstead and remediate the land through myco-agroforesrty.

Eric Sherman (he/him) has been cooking and distributing food in NYC since 2006. He is a fungal enthusiast, amateur forager, father, and appreciator of the power of food to bring people together.

Donna Miskend (She/Her) is a multimedia artist, writer, and educator. Her current body of work focuses on botanical/natural science illustration. She is passionate about nature and supports environmental engagement efforts through her projects, programs and collaborations. She is the recipient of teaching and artist grants, and her participation in exhibits that educate the public about stewardship and the preservation of habitats reflect her ongoing commitment to environmental and conservation issues. Her professional memberships include the American Society of Botanical Artists and New York Mycological Society.

Drawing from a career in medical and scientific illustration, special needs education, and sculptural cake design, Carol Rudowsky weaves together a tapestry of skills to create botanical artwork that is both technically refined and profoundly engaging to demonstrate her love of the natural world. Earning her dual degree in Studio Arts and Art History at Stony Brook University in New York, Carol traveled to Italy to study the Italian Masters and their artistic methods at the University of Siena in Italy. Enamored with the artists of the Italian Renaissance, such as the Medieval art of Cimabue, to the High Renaissance style of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, strongly influenced her pursuits for exploring the world of art. Her journeys traveling to historic museums and famous art venues across France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco, England, Canada, and Ireland, fuels her fascination with understanding art’s value and impact within different cultures of the world. The Gregory Museum, in Hicksville, NY, commissioned her to create illustrations for their exhibit on the timeline of humans and plant evolution. In partnering with Dr. Curtis Dewey, Carol produced anatomical and physiology illustrations for his published veterinary textbook, “A Practical; Guide to Canine and Feline Neurology”. She has enhanced her abilities as a botanical illustrator through training and membership with the New York Botanical Gardens and the American Society of Botanical Artists. She has taught workshops in Paris, France, as well as at Fungi festivals across the Northeast. She is currently creating a unique series of artwork and fungi illustrations on paper, in which she experiments with bioluminescent species of fungi depictions that glow-in-the-dark directly from the fungi illustrations. Carol also hand sculpts a variety of fungi wearables & jewelry, in a variety of botanical species from around the globe who are critically endangered, to preserve their personalities. Her artwork has been exhibited at Alacrity Frame Shop Gallery, in Troy N.Y., Roxbury Arts Group Gallery, in Roxbury N.Y., New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, N.Y., and for students attending the Cornell Cooperative Extension online program in Botanical Illustration. Carol shares her excitement in creating artwork inspired by nature through illustrations, sculptures, and teachings. Her installations explore the boundaries and possibilities depicting the intricate textures, compositions, and forms of subjects in nature. Her art encourages a heightened awareness and appreciation for organisms outside of traditional botanical illustration, Illuminating the biological “Tree of Life” marvels that sustain the natural world.

Woodbine mycology crew

Leo is a former BigTech puppet turned Ameteur Mycologist and Citizen Scientist living in NYC with the love of their life, TyNia Rene, and his dog, gg.